Maya Animation Artist

Tell us about yourself Philip; where are you from and
when and how did you get started in 3D animation?

I am from a tiny village in the southwest of England.
I spent most of my life here and have been interested
in 3D animation for nearly 10 years but it never really
occurred to me that I could actually do it as a living.
Then I went to university in Manchester to study a fine
art based degree. The course was very open and they
allowed students to do animation (although there was
absolutely no training) - this was the real spark, which
made me realize that I could turn all my story ideas
into reality. I have just graduated this year with a
First, so I am really happy.

What Programs and Hardware do currently work with? And
why do you choose to work with these software packages?

I pretty much exclusively use Maya. I used to use Lightwave.
I like Maya because it allows you to get right at the
bones of the program and make it work for you.

Do you think that artists with a formal education in
animation have an advantage over self-taught artists?

That’s a tricky one. I think that a formal education
in 2D animation is good but I am less keen on computer
animation degrees and courses. I personally a find it
useful to be self taught as I know exactly how and why
things work - not just that they do.

Who’s work do you admire?

I really like children’s illustrators particularly
Kathleen Hale (famous for her Orlando books from the
50s) and Arthur Rackham. The way Rackham draws trees
is wonderful, you can see he really loves his subject
matter. Jan Pienkowski is another favourite. I really
enjoy artwork that has been created with love.

Where do you get the inspiration for your art?

The most bizarre things. I just think of silly things
when my mind wanders and then elaborate on them. Train
journeys are good as you’ve got a constantly changing
image/environment but without a narrative structure
to it. I get a lot of ideas on trains.

Could you take us through your creative process when
starting a new animation project.

If I don’t already have an idea I often start
with a contradiction. Or look at the norm in a situation
and try swapping ideas around or turn it on its head.
For instance: what if we had to pay for gravity? When
people got cut off for non-payment they would just float
into space. Then I would start thinking of the consequences
of this.

Could you tell us about your 3D animated short An Irresponsible
Use of Frogs?

To sum up the story…If you follow a double yellow
line far enough you will reach the traffic control HQ,
a hellish place where all yellow lines are created...

Greta, a
not-so-wicked witch, becomes a traffic warden to try
and uphold her old fashioned evil values. “These
days it seems turning milk sour is just not enough for
a witch to make a living!”

It all started
nearly 2 years ago as a completely different story and
then I let it mature naturally and it just kept developing
the narrative until it bore no resemblance to the original
story. I then created it formy final graduation show.
It was the last of 3 shorts created at university.

How was the concept of An Irresponsible Use of Frogs
conceived?

My main character Greta the witch was actually a character
I made up over 3 years ago. She was originally a strongly
feminist witch who burned her bras to keep her cauldron
alight. Then I kept adding layers of contradictions
to her character to create the conflict and drama I
needed to drive the story. For example. she is a little
on the ugly side so I gave her an interest in glamour
and a desire to be beautiful, and she actually had an
acting role once playing the legs of the Wicked Witch
of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Sadly she has had no
acting work since. Another contradiction is her upbringing
- she is left a legacy of evil by her mother who also
showed her great love. This gives Greta strong maternal
instincts but a desire to do bad. You may notice that
all her cook books are vegetarian and she even has a
tin of corn Vegi-pillars because she wants to be evil
and witchlike but does not want to kill caterpillars.
There are a great many details like this throughout
the animation which are not immediately obvious. She
has a life jacket on her coat stand; this is in case
of witch dunking as Greta can’t swim and she would
not want to be proved innocent so she hides it under
her clothes to cheat!

How long did it take to complete An Irresponsible Use
of Frogs?

It was over a period of about a year and a half but
that was while doing other university work and a 2 month
work placement at 422 Manchester.

What software
packages were used in the creation of An Irresponsible
Use of Frogs?

Maya, After Effects and Photoshop. I also bought Ray
diffuse and Tomcat Tooshader specifically for this project.

What’s
next for Philip Child? Are there any new projects on
the horizon?

I have loads
more Ideas and stories in development but I am not rushing
into anything. I need a rest after so much work! I might
put some info about past animated shorts on my website
if people are interested. Much of next year will be
spent entering film festivals and hoping things develop
from that. There will be tough competition, I have seen
some really great work from France and Germany this
year.

Do you
have any advice for the aspiring 3D artist out there?

The only thing I can suggest
in my humble experience is: don’t get bogged down
learning a piece of software, as it’ll probably
be out of date in a year. It’s better to concentrate
on developing interesting ideas or strong artistic skills
as in the end that is all that will set you apart from
anyone else.